History

Before Payton Manning, before Michael Vick, there was Condredge Holloway.

Condredge Holloway was the first black quarterback to play in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). An Huntsville, Alabama native, playing in the SEC was not his first choice. In 1971, he was the fourth player selected overall by the baseball Montreal Expos to play shortstop. He was recruited for the Expos by Negro League HOF Buck O'Neil. The reason he didn't play was because his mother, who was a history maker of her own by being the first African-American to work for NASA, would not give permission for her son to play for the Expos. Condredge was 17, too young to sign a contract under Alabama law.

During his three year run as the Vols QB (1972- 1974), he led them to three post-season bowl games and had a career record of 25-9-2. He ended his career as having the schools best interception-to-attempt ratio in Tennessee history, throwing just 12 interceptions in 407 collegiate attempts. By the way, he also earned all conference as well as All-American honors in 1975 as a...wait for it...shortstop. His .353 career batting average is still the school's ninth best in history.

Looking at this play, you can see why he was called "The Artful Dodger" in college:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0iFQRCMCKo

After college, he was drafted by the Patriots in the 12th round as a quarterback. Seeing the odds, he opted for the Canadian Football League. In his 13 year career, he threw for over 25,000 yards and scored 155 touchdowns while playing for three CFL teams. He won two Gray Bowl (equal to Super Bowl wins) titles, was the league MVP in 1982 and is a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, UT Baseball Hall of Fame and halls of fame for the cities of Toronto, Ottawa, Knoxville and Huntsville.

His story was on ESPN this past Sunday...which I missed. I hope to catch it at a later date.

He is currently an assistant athletic director at the University of Tennessee. As usual, mother knows best.

As usual, it takes my crew to keep me on point to remind me that this is BLACK HISTORY MONTH. Sometimes we takes things that we couldn't do back in a day that we can do now for granted. Once again, one love to my boyz to help me to never forget.